What I love! | Peaches Prattlings

{September 6, 2013} Riddick

An Oscar contender this is not. It was awful, but I LOVED it!

If you are looking for great cinema, I know there is some out there somewhere, maybe in the next screening room, same theater. But…if you are looking for action, bad dialog, slashing, shooting, creatures, weird dogs /dingo-dongy thingies, some gratuitous nudity, Riddick kicking alien and human arse, then this is the movie for you!

Riddick is played by Vin Diesel, this being the third installment of the Riddick series: Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick and now , Riddick. He played the role like it was written with him in mind, not sure if it was, but it fit. His eyes are one of the coolest feature about this character, apparently he had his eyes “adjusted” when he was in prison, the effect: they have a violet starburst in the center, this allows him to see in the…c’mon, you know…pitch black!

The movie opens with Riddick being stranded on a barren, hot planet, not where he expected to be. There are alien creatures that resemble scorpions on crack, I think that’s a good way to put it. There is a dog-like creature, the dingo-dongy thing referred to that honestly looks like a cross between a zebra, hyena, cheetah, greyhound with the coolest ears. Riddick finds a puppy, his siblings are dead and he takes it with him, after fighting and killing one in the beginning of the movie, this one he raises from a pup, you can guess what happens.

Riddick realizes that he needs to get off this planet, he finds an outpost and signals some bounty hunters who come after him, two different teams; one that looks like they are homeless mercenaries that might sell each other out and the other, a polished, together team that has each others back. It’s one Riddick against eleven bounty hunters, hmmm, I wonder who’s going to come out on top.

Here’s what’s interesting about this movie. Riddick is a criminal, a convict and has been nothing else, with a bounty on his head, but…we are rooting for him, he’s the bad good guy in all this, how about them apples? The cool thing about Riddick is watching his mind work, watch him calculate, rationalize, strategize, there is a MacGuyver-esq quality to what he does, what I mean is that he looks at what’s around so that he can get himself out of whatever situation he is in that will probably save his life.

I almost said for the ladies for this comment, but I don’t want to discriminate…there is a scene where Riddick is, well, let’s just say you won’t be complaining, ok, I wasn’t complaining; there are also some gratuitous nekkid female shots. It’s interesting because these shots affected me in different ways; I am all for gratuitous violence or nudity if it’s warranted and here’s what I mean. There is a silhouette of Riddick on top of a rock, you can tell he’s in the all together, it makes sense [and no, this is not just because i think he’s hot], it makes sense because it is a beginning, almost a rebirth as he starts over, finding himself and his strengths and moving forward. There is a scene, it’s actually a flashback, to Riddick, when he was in a position of power, in his bedroom and there are four nude women, his concubines in his bed. This nudity makes sense, he is the man in charge, they are there to please him, in context, acceptable. Later, the only living female on the barren wasteland of a planet, she is washing up in the sink, topless. Here’s where I have issue…she was only washing her face and armpits and she was wearing a tank top for most of the movie, why does she need to take her top off to wash her face? Also, there are bad things outside the building, she’s supposed to be on her guard and here she is sponge bathing in the sink topless? There is one line that Riddick makes reference to this scene, but was it really necessary? Pointless nudity, see what I’m saying?

Another thing that got me…the language. This is a different race of beings, they are not human, they are not from earth. I get that the movie is in English so we can all understand it, but there were signs and posters like you would find here on earth and the cussing, it’s another solar system, planets and they’re using the same words we use, the f-bomb was dropped a few times, not an uncomfortable amount for anyone, I just want to know why they aren’t using made up words, just like they do in other shows/movies [frack, frail, anything!] I have to tell you, I was going on and on about some of these things and i had DCM in stitches he was laughing so hard!

I will tell you that for a good bit of the beginning of the movie, I was beginning to wonder if there would be any other humans in the movie! just be prepared, the others are coming, we have to build up to it and watch Riddick do his thing, with the jacked up scorpions and the puppy, it’s all setting the stage for the rest of the movie.

Overall, I really liked this movie; I laughed, I gasped, I cringed, i hid my eyes and covered my ears [who wants to hear the screaming!] and i recommend it for anyone who’s into these kinds of movies.

Daddy – go for it! [but, I don’t think that LD will enjoy it!]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1411250/

{September 4, 2013} L’Shana Tova

Happy New Year!

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, the first of the High Holy Days, it happens in the fall, it’s a two day celebration, beginning in the evening, erev, at sundown,and following through to sundown the next day. This is a time of celebration, the beginning of a new year, a time of reflection and self examination.

There are a few wonderful symbols and traditions that make this holiday special. One is the blowing of the shofar, a rams horn; it represents waking people from their slumber, to alert them to the coming judgement, we’ll talk about Yom Kippur in another post.

It is an honor to be chosen to blow the shofar as it is not an easy thing to do, it takes years of practice to truly perfect it, but there is nothing like seeing and hearing little kids who give it a go! Here is a link for a brilliant cantor, blowing the shofar.

Another tradition is having sweet foods, like apples with honey, for a sweet year. You saw by the title of this post, L’Shana Tova, meaning have a good year, in Yiddish, it’s ah gut yohr, which means a good year.

You might greet someone with Shana Tova, and a response, my favorite, is to wish someone a happy, healthy and sweet year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah

So, my dear sweet friends and family, I say to you, L’Shana Tova, I wish you a good, healthy, happy and sweet year.

{September 4, 2013} A first grader!

There were other things to tell to about my weekend,but I have to tell you something way more important!

I am the aunt of a FIRST GRADER!!!

Am I crowing? Am I proud? My sister is the mother of a first grader! I still remember the day we brought her home from the hospital! What? I remember meeting EJS for the first time, she was two weeks old and today..she got on the school bus and went to her first day of school and she was a champ!

The day started early, I set the alarm for 5:45 so I could call EJS and wish her well on her first day of school. The first thing she said was “I know what I want to be for Halloween!” My sister said, “slow down! How about Hi auntie J, how are you?” We were laughing so hard! “Hi Auntie J, how are you?”

I asked all the questions I could think of: What are you wearing? What’s in your backpack? What’s for lunch? What are you most excited about?

While we were talking, MGS wanted to show me all the dolls she was playing with and said “I can’t see you!” She thought we were doing FaceTime and couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t see me!

EJS and I talked a little more about school and what she was most excited about, I was so excited for her and I couldn’t wait to see pictures! After she was done talking about school, it was time to get down to the next important order of business…what she wanted to be for Halloween. This is a very important discussion and as I am in charge of getting the costumes, I need to know what she wants to be!

When she was little, I used to get costumes, I had a lot of fun choosing, now that she’s getting older, she is making the decisions, which makes things a little easier for me! I miss picking something myself, but it is great to see her making her own mind up and this year, as of right now, it’s the pink power ranger, did you know they were still around?

Then as quickly as we started talking (I think this post is longer than we were on the phone!) it was time to go to get on the bus, good luck, I’m proud of you, have fun and I love you!

Photos went out, I asked how she did and GES said she was a champ! I expected nothing less.

In the afternoon, I checked to see if they were home and they were, FaceTime! EJS was excited and told me all about her day, riding the bus and making a friend, coloring, meeting the principle, gym, lunch, after care and mommy picking her up. I asked what her favorite part was and it was lunch, because being in the cafeteria with everyone made her feel grown up.

After telling me all about her day, she was done with me! I got to catch up with my sister and then, as luck would have it, about five minutes later, in comes MGS and we got to chat for a few minutes until she was done with me!

I don’t think I’ve stopped smiling! I have a niece who is officially in the big leagues and I am so very proud of her! (And my sister for keeping it together!)

{September 2, 2013} The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

For the first time ever, at least I think it’s the first time ever, I cannot for the life of me remember the full name of this movie! DCM and I keep wanting to say Immortal instead of mortal and I cannot remember the word instruments when it comes to this movie!

The worst part…I really did like this movie, we both did I’m just having a moment with the title! Oh brother!

The movie is definitely fantasy, based on a series of books, “The Mortal Instruments is a series of six young adult fantasy novels written by Cassandra Clare, of which five have been published so far. Wikipedia”
http://www.shadowhunters.com/mortalinstruments/

Clery is your typical teenager in NYC, she lives with her mom, who is an artist, she inherited that talent and seems to have the same teen angst as every other teenage girl, but you can tell there is something that her mom is not telling her, especially since she starts seeing certain things she can’t explain.

When Clery’s mom disappears, she finds out she is from a long line of warriors to protect mundanes, non magical folk, you know, you and me, from the mythical creatures. Someone says, you know all those creatures under the bed from the stories when you were a kid, they are real.

Werewolves, demons, vampires, warlocks, witches, just some of the creatures that Clery learns about when her eyes are opened. Clery is played by Lily Collins, who I first remember from Mirror Mirror, she was good in the role; questioning, confused, vulnerable, strong, even kick-ass now and then, brave and true and steadfast to those she cared about.

You felt like you were with her through the entire journey and since she didn’t know who or what she really was, and neither did we in the audience, we experienced everything with her. Well, except for the fighting and bruising first hand, but that’s ok, I’ll watch her do it, she can represent.

There were some things, twists and turns that I can’t tell you about, because it might give major plot lines away, but I did have a Luke and Leia moment. You can’t make judgements about whether someone is good, only because what you thought is probably wrong and don’t forget the teenage love triangle, he loves her, she thinks of him and a brother, she finds someone she thinks she loves and his best friend is in love with him and hates her, like I said, teenage angst!

I have to admit, the very last scene we were like, huh? And, it was a touch too long, but…

All in all, we both enjoyed the movie and we’re looking forward to the next one when there is one.

I know that it is based on a series of books, number six just being published. DCM said he wants to read the series and I think it might be good, but I’m also afraid that if I read it, it might be so different, like so many adaptations are, I will be disappointed. (The Davinici Code was a big one, so much so, that I didn’t read Angels and Demons, I only went to see the movie, I also remember the uproar when people went to see Eargon, I didn’t read the book, so I was happy with the movie)

If anyone has read the books and goes to see the movie, please let me know if they are close.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1538403/?ref_=sr_1

{August 31, 2013} A trip to the mountains

Today was a good day to explore.

Remember last week when I told you about going up to Błackhawk, CO to check out the mountains and the casinos? Well, someone, not saying who, but I’ll give you one guess, has been jonesing to play poker in a tournament for a long time, to just play and not run the game. There is WSP, World Series of Poker, for those of you not in the know, Poker After Dark either on the TV or DVR most nights, something had to be done about it.

Well, today, that desire was fulfilled! DCM headed up to Blackhawk to participate in a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament. Let’s just say he had an absolute blast! He didn’t have to do anything except play (normally he runs the tournaments, controls the blinds, please don’t ask me what that is! keeps track of the players, everything) and when he was through, he came in 16th out 56, not to shabby!

Well, while DCM was live out his WSP dreams, I headed in the same direction to the mountains, took a left at the sign for Idaho Springs. It was a great drive with the top down on the curvy roads, seeing the people in the water, hiking and climbing the rocks, very nice.

My first stop was the Idaho Springs visitor center. There I learned that Idaho Springs was the place where the gold rush started; they had a population. Of 14,000 and now, 2,000, it got too expensive to live there, they were hit hard with the gas shortage back in the 1970s.

They had a letter from 1924 regarding the ballot for the presidential elections 1896 and the list of nominations, amazing! There were gems and minerals from the local mines, a pricing sheet for minerals at the time, costumes for women of the day, a car, fools gold, all very interesting, I’m looking forward to going back.

I started to drive through town, decided to park and then walked around. The town was cute and charming, had a nice small town feel, lots of shops and restaurants. I walked to the end of town, then started back down the other side of the street.

I stopped at the Underhill Museum, it was a business/home that was preserved as it was back I the early 1900s. I learned about the owner of the house and his family, it was charming.
http://www.examiner.com/article/museum-monday-underhill-museum-idaho-springs

Right outside of the museum was a sweet azalea bush, ok, it might not be an azalea bush, but I’m going with it, and flying around the bush was a hummingbird moth, it was amazing, looked just like a hummingbird, but it was a moth!

I walked the full length of the town back to my car, dropped off a letter at the post office for a nice woman looking for a post box.

http://www.idahospringsco.com/

I started driving, I was going to head up to Mount Evans, but I ended up driving to Georgetown, CO, another very cute and quaint town. The great thing…as I was driving there, is saw all the signs towards the different mountains that feature…skiing! I cannot wait to get on the slopes this winter, it’s been a while!

When I was in Idaho Springs, it was warm, when I got to Georgetown, the sweatshirt came out, the temperature had dropped at least 15/20 degrees, it felt like and it was raining a bit. I did learn that even in the summer, it gets down to the 40s in Georgetown, sounds good to me!

Georgetown, like Idaho Springs, which I didn’t mention, the main “drag” is about three to five blocks and just as charming as it could be! I found free parking, wahoo and got out to walk around. Right where I parked was the Hotel de Paris.

The Hotel de Paris museum that was a hotel that dated back to the mining boom with a first class French restaurant, showroom for traveling salesmen, and high dollar patrons in the hotel. The owner, Louis Dupuy, was an interesting man, had quite the checkered past! One of the really interesting things was that he didn’t have any family, so he left the estate to his main, Sophie, who he was very close with and since she was illiterate and couldn’t run the business, she was so stressed out, she died four months after he did!

There was only one way to tour the museum, guided tour, the reason, everything was open and very few things were roped off and everything was original to the museum, the only thing that had been replaced was the carpet in one room and some of the support beams in the basement.

It was a great learning experience! They had some great features like the hide-away beds that folded to look like dressers, so cool! Louis Dupuy even had his own ranch with cattle and once a week would go to his ranch, slaughter her own cattle and serve it in his restaurant, talk about full service!
I highly recommend this tour if you have the opportunity.

Home

Since the tour started at 3, I had some time to kill, so I walked around town, into some of the shops and galleries,and after the museum, I walked the rest of the town. I didn’t buy very much in either town, but in Georgetown, I did buy some local honey, it’s some thing I like to buy when I travel.

I treated myself to a cup of hot tea, it was definitely needed and a homemade peanut butter cup, yum!
http://www.town.georgetown.co.us/

After walking around a bit more and chatting with some of the people in town, I headed home, a beautiful drive, incredibly scenic.

{August 26, 2013} The World’s End

Sunday we went to see a matinee of The World’s End.

As I la la la love Simon Pegg, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0670408/?ref_=tt_cl_t15, we were going to see this movie!

I also love Nick Frost, his best mate and co-writing partner. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0296545/?ref_=sr_1

If you’re not sure who Simon Pegg is, he wrote Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Paul, just to name a few. If that still hasn’t jogged your memory, he’s played Scotty in the two new Star Trek movies, that help?

So, if you’ve seen the previews anywhere, this won’t be a spoiler, if you haven’t, it will be. Five childhood friends reunite 20 years later, back in their hometown, to complete an infamous pub crawl, twelve pubs, twelve pints, ending at, you guessed it because you’re so smart, The World’s End pub. The goal is to make it to the end, beat their record of eight or nine. Then somewhere along the line (here comes the spoiler alert) they encounter robots.

Ok, so this was Hot Fuzz, Stepford Wives, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, any stupid drinking movie and a few others I can’t think of, all rolled into one.

I knew when is saw the preview it was not going to be an Oscar winner, but I knew there would be funny parts, there would be odd parts, there would be parts we would look at each other “huh?”, there would be really stupid parts and there would be parts that drop your jaw. And you know what, we weren’t disappointed! Did I mention, it had Simon Pegg?

I will say that the end didn’t make sense to either of us, we were talking about it for most of the night! When you see it, you will probably agree and if you understand the ending, please explain it to me!

One of the things that I really like is, like many writer/actor/stars, Simon Pegg puts a lot of the same actors in their movies. Think Kevin Smith, Adam Sandler, Christopher Guest. In Simon Pegg movies, you might see Bill Nighy, David Bradley, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, just to name a few.

I don’t think this movie is going to be in the theater for very long, but that wouldn’t stop me from seeing it! Wait, I did see it! If you’re up for a mindless good time, a few laughs and beer? Go for it!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213663/?ref_=sr_1

{August 23, 2013} Hitch

I know I’m way behind, but today, I finally saw Hitch.

One of the things I like about having access to cable again, is the possibility that an older movie might be on and Hitch it was.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie. Will Smith plays Hitch, a consultant who helps his clients get over their fears and bring out who they are to help find the love of their lives or if they are already in love, the courage to be with their love, help her see him for who he is.

His methods seem to help all of his clients, but as you can imagine, they don’t work for himself, when he meets a skeptical reporter in Eva Mendes. He has to face certain things and others as they come to light, after he breaks a lot of his own rules.

I will give you a hint…there is a happy ending!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386588/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1y

{August 21, 2013} The sofa is too comfy!

Ok, we may have already talked about this, but it’s so true, I dozed off again!

I don’t know about your sofa/couch, but this one is so darned cozy, you can easily fall asleep and not even realize it, well, until you wake up again!

I had the same problem with the sofa in my house in Atlanta! I could sit and work on the sofa until the cows came home, which is a great saying, but doesn’t apply here since we don’t work with cows, but…

If I were to lay down to watch a movie, just recline to get more comfortable, I may close my eyes thinking I was just blinking and wake up three hours later, not realizing where the time had gone! It sucks you in!

Case in point, I was laying down to write to you tonight and I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden I woke up and DCM was saying goodnight! What? What happened? Oh, ok, I’ll be in soon, I still have to blog (and now it’s after midnight!

Sometimes though, you have to admit, it is the most comfortable place ever! As long as your sofa/couch is long enough for you to stretch out on, you can get the most intense good nights sleep ever!

There have been times that both DCM and or I have fallen asleep on the sofa, we don’t always wake each other up when it’s time to go into the bedroom for lights out; either we realize that the other person is comfortable and sleeping soundly that they will get up on their own and come to bed later or…the other person is sleeping so soundly, there is no way to wake them up!

What about when you’re sick, isn’t the sofa the most awesomest place to be on the planet? Propped up on some pillows, wrapped in blankets, cup of hot soup or tea to help keep you warm and bad TV or movies on to help you forget that your sick, what could be better? It’s a nice change from the bedroom where you know you’re going to be later, maybe can’t move from that spot, but need to look at something else and stretch out differently.

Embrace the sofa, don’t fight it! We almost become like toddlers who don’t want to nap, we might miss something, but I’m here to tell you, napping for anyone over five is very underrated and if you fall asleep, it’s your body trying to tell you something!

Hmm…back to the sofa or head off to bed?

{August 20, 2013} FaceTime!

The good mood started on Saturday and went all the way through today!

First…I was in the kitchen juicing my veggies on Saturday when I heard DCM talking to someone, telling them I was making a lot of noise, guess who! LB! Granddaughter extraordinaire! She was excited to talk to Grandpa and JJ and show us her room, read us a story and talk to the cats, sounds like a good start to the weekend!

Today…I reached out to GES today to see about chatting with the girls. Dinner was over, it was a little before bath time, still a little odd as I’m two hours behind, haven’t quite had dinner and they are getting ready for bed, but you know me, I’ll take any moment I can get!

Here they come onscreen all talk, talk, talk, over each other. MGS wants to know when I’m coming to visit, more importantly, how many minutes until my visit! Just like when I left a few weeks ago, she’s asking again, looks like we might need to plan a visit in the next few months, hmmm, twist my arm?

I had very important business to discuss with EJS. She is starting FIRST GRADE in a few weeks! What? I still remember meeting her when she was just two weeks old! Her daddy works at Staples, he is very excited to get her school supplies, but I wanted to get her something for her book bag, something special.

She discussed it with her mom and we decided on a pencil case and some colored pencils that she can keep as most of the school supplies are communal. I asked if there was anything special on the pencil case, its pink, maybe Cinderella or Ariel. I am on the case!

We chatted about camp, which she loves until she found something more interesting and moved on and it was me and MGS. She talked to me for a long time, from the kitchen to the bath to getting ready for bed and then…”I’m done with you now”, well, alrighty then!

I talked to EJS for another minute and then she was ready to move on so I said ‘night ‘night, I love you and blew kisses, then it was over.

A few minutes later guess who was free! Miss A! We connected and she was sitting there posed just like Rodin’s “The Thinker”! Big difference, she was giggling, giggling, giggling! What a great sight and sound!

We chatted a bit about school and how she was liking it and then I got the entire scoop from SDL, Miss A is a woman of few words, more giggling, sometimes hard to get a word in edgewise! We talked about her new school, riding the bus, aftercare, her appointments and the rain, rain, rain that won’t go away!

I’m excited that I will get to see my munchkin in a few weeks when I’m Atlanta for a race, how lucky am I!

Then it was time to get her ready for night night, so I blew kiss and accepted the ones I got, said I love you and see you soon and signed off with a smile on my face, almost as good as the giggles and smile coming from hers!

So, who’s next? Night night!

{August 18, 2013} Contact and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane

Today we watched two movies, two of DCM’s favorites. One made you think, question what you might know and open your mind to the possibilities and the other just sucked the brain cells right out of your head. (try and disagree with me!)

We watched Contact first, not First Contact (ha ha, nod to all my Trekkie friends!) starring Jodi Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerritt, Angela Basset, just to name drop. It was interesting, about a young girl who was searching the vast universe for life from the time she was a small child, encouraged by her dad, who never gave up that dream, no matter what, no matter who told her she was crazy, her ideas were crazy and there is no such thing as life off our planet.

A great quote from the movie:
Young Ellie: Dad, do you think there’s people on other planets?
Ted Arroway: I don’t know, Sparks. But I guess I’d say if it is just us… seems like an awful waste of space.

That determination and spark (no pun intended) kept her motivated and determined, what would the world be like if great thinkers and innovators throughout history had given up when someone said, you’re wrong, your ideas are stupid, you don’t know what your talking about. Leonardo Da Vinci,
Marie Curie, The Wright Brothers, Albert Einstein, just food for thought.

All in all, it was a good movie and I can now say I’ve seen it.

At one point, we were joking, I said, I don’t know why we keep trying to make contact with “little green men”, it doesn’t seem to work out for the us on planet earth! (Except for Star Trek: First Contact and maybe E.T.)

Bottom line, it made me think, just as it was intended.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Apparently I was thinking too much and needed to be brought down about, oh, I don’t know, a bunch of levels…I had to watch The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. I was promised that if I watched it, I would never have to do so again or be asked about watching it.

I now know where certain lines of DCM’s come from and I want that 1.5 hours back!

There was quite a cast in this movie, Ed O’Neill, Priscilla Presley, Wayne Newton! Lauren Holly, Gilbert Godfriend, Robert England (not a fan of Freddy Kruger, but always odd to see him out of that costume), who wasn’t in this movie?

The two best parts of the movie? Ford Fairlane, Andrew Dice Clay’s mint condition Ford Fairlane and Lauren Holly’s green VW convertible, go figure, I loved that!

I think the imdb.com description says it all:
Ford “Mr. Rock n’ Roll Detective” Fairlane is experiencing problems, and it’s not with the opposite sex. One of them is that all the rock stars pay him with drum sticks, koala bears, food processors and bicycle shorts. Another one of them is that all his employers that want him to find a girl named Zuzu Petals get killed. Why didn’t he become a fisherman’s detective instead? A must-see for Andrew Dice Clay fans

Not to worry, you never go into this movie thinking it is going to be a cinematic masterpiece. It had a few funny moments, I’ll give you that, very few and no koalas were hurt in the making of this movie. Don’t misunderstand, I like stupid funny as much as the next guy, but this was, well, really stupid funny, when it was funny.

I watched it, I should have at least gotten a tshirt, but now we can all move on with our lives.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098987/?ref_=sr_1

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